But since not
even Jay-Z can amend each artist's contract with their record labels, it seems
unclear if Tidal will be making as
big a splash as predicted by the music moguls who helped rebuild the streaming
service earlier this year.

Like
with your traditional fantasy sports, participants draft a roster of players to
compete. However, unlike traditional fantasy sports websites that require
customers to play for an entire season, participants of daily fantasy sports
sites can play for a single days games and get a fast payout. Participants can
play head to head, against multiple people, or through a tournament. Customers
can enter a draft for as much as $1 and up, and the prizes vary from the
hundreds to the tens of thousands of dollars.

Even
though these fantasy sports websites are really just a form of online sports
betting they are able to skirt the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
(UIGEA). The UIGEA was enacted in 2006 to regulate internet gambling and specifically
bans internet sports gambling. However, the UIGEA carved out an exception for
fantasy sports in § 5362. Despite
not being banned in the UIGEA, a few states including Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana,
Montana and Washington have chosen to prohibit these type of fantasy sports
sites.

Because
there has been a new trend of acceptance towards sports betting and because these
fantasy sports websites now have big money to throw at lobbyists, it is
unlikely that a change to the UIGEA will be made banning fantasy sports sites. One
thing is evident, barring an unlikely change in the law, their enormous growth
will likely continue.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

If
you pay attention to the news media at all, you have heard of Jameis Winston.
He first became famous in Fall of 2013 as an outstanding quarterback for the
Florida State Seminoles. He led the Seminoles to an undefeated season, cumulating
in a National Championship. However, before that season ended, Jameis Winston
was accused of raping a female student in December 2012. Jameis fully admitted they
have sex; however, he claims it was consensual.

His
accuser, who I will not name here (even though she has since gone public in a
documentary called The Hunting
Ground) sued Jameis Winston Thursday, April 16 2015. In her newest lawsuit, she has
accused him of sexual battery, assault,
false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress arising out
of forcible rape. This suit comes about two weeks before the NFL
draft. Winston is expected to be a
first round draft pick, if not the first draft pick.

However,
this is not the first time the accuser has sought to prosecute Winston. While
the incident happened in December 2012, the accuser did not pursue any action against
Winston until the Fall of 2013 (it is important to note that she claims she did try to pursue charges against him after the initial incident in December 2012, but the police did not follow through). During that time, she claims, the Tallahassee
Police Department and the Florida State University worked together to cover up
the crime. An investigation pursued, and Willie Megs, a State Attorney, did
not file any charges against Winston.

After the State
Attorney dropped the case, the University itself conducted a code of conduct investigation
and hearing. The hearing, tried by a former Florida Supreme Court judge, found
neither Winston nor the Accusers' story to be more credible
than the other; and therefore could not find that Winston violated FSU’s student
code of conduct. After FSU declined to punish Winston, the accuser then sued
the school itself. She claims that the University deliberately avoided its
Title IX obligations and mishandled the investigation to protect their athlete.
The lawsuit is still pending.

While the burden of
proof is low in civil suits, I am not sure she will be able to meet that burden
in her civil suit against Winston. The retired Judge was unable to say that
Winston committed the act by a preponderance of the evidence, which is a low standard.
We’re just going to have to wait and see how the civil suit turns out. Though,
now that Winston will be entering the draft and, in theory, becoming wealthy, I
wonder if the accuser will push for an out of court settlement. Only time will
tell!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Aaron Hernandez, once one of the most respected, young NFL players, is now a convicted murderer who stands trial (yet again) next month for a double homicide. Throughout the trial that finally concluded on April 14th, the prosecution had a hard time establishing motive. Why would a young, successful NFL starter kill the victim, Odin Lloyd? Why would Aaron risk his entire life, his career and everything he worked for as a young boy, by allegedly killing Lloyd?

The answer: unchecked, narcissistic behavior that was partly fueled by NFL contracts worth millions of dollars. For Aaron, playing for the New England Patriots, less than three hours from his hometown in Connecticut, proved fatal in the end.

Aaron grew up in a middle class town in Bristol, Connecticut, where his dad was known throughout high school for his athleticism. After meeting Aaron’s mom, an Italian woman who worked in the city, the couple produced two athletic sons whose talents would surpass most expectations. Aaron’s father, originally from Puerto Rico, wanted his boys to fit in well with the middle-class community. Having a dream that one day his boys would make it in the NFL, Aaron, his father, and his brother practiced and worked out before school every morning and after the school day ended every evening. Aaron and his brother were so disciplined that they performed burpee’s (an intensive exercise) early in the mornings on weekends in order to improve their strength.

In school, Aaron played football and was known to be the class clown on campus, always wanting to make his fellow peers laugh. He had a winning, baby-face smile that reflected both his sense of humor and desire to play football.

However, when he was sixteen, he would never be the same Aaron Hernandez again. Aaron’s mother and father experienced marital problems, as his mom began having an affair with Aaron's cousin's husband. And when his dad went to the hospital for a routine treatment, the healthy 49 year old was pronounced dead two days later, caused by a medical error.

Aaron was never the same. His mom married the man with whom she had an affair and who turned out to be a drug dealer and abusive to Aaron's mom. Aaron’s brother had left for college, leaving Aaron to spend more and more time with his father’s side of the family. His uncles and cousins did not live in the sheltered, middle class community Aaron did. Much of the family and close friends were drug dealers, who never had or held a job and used illicit substances regularly.

Aaron was finally able to leave the “hood” behind when he was accepted to the University of Florida to play on the University’s team. But he never completely left the "hood" behind. It was too late. Despite the positive change into a more conservative, religious state, Aaron was committed to his “ghetto lifestyle” that had been swept under the rug for so long because of his talent on the field.

One of his coaches at the University of Florida realized Aaron’s talent and wasteful habits. In an attempt to mentor Aaron and encourage him to be religious, his coach allowed Aaron to stay with him several days a week. Despite his efforts, Aaron failed multiple drug tests and was benched for several games. Aaron’s violence escalated, as his old, drug dealing friends from Connecticut visited him often. Aaron would not give up his narcissistic behavior, which led to a civil claim filed against the University of Florida when Aaron punched a waiter in the face, breaking the waiter's eardrum.

When being considered by the NFL, Aaron was consistently ranked exceedingly highly for his athleticism and talent as a tight end, but failed miserably for his lack of maturity. Aaron promised that if he failed another drug test, that the NFL could keep a portion of his paycheck. However, his promises proved empty. Aaron became completely divorced from reality due to his use of “Angel Dust,” a hallucinogen causing him to become extremely paranoid. The paranoia continued to escalate so much so that he refused to leave his home without a gun. He rarely spoke with his teammates, who saw Aaron as a loner rather than a team player. Aaron failed to show up for practices, even receiving calls from the Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, who questioned Aaron about his behavior. Aaron believed he was invincible because of his drug use, money and drug dealing friends who constantly mooched off of him.

And that’s when Aaron met Odin Lloyd. Lloyd was Aaron’s fiancée’s sister’s boyfriend. Three weeks before Lloyd's murder, Lloyd's cousin met Lloyd and Aaron at a night club, where Aaron spent thousands of dollars. The night involved a lot of drugs, models, dancers, and drinking. Lloyd's cousin warned Lloyd about Aaron, telling him not to trust him. Hearing the exchange, Aaron became enraged, and never let that night go. The night of Lloyd's murder, Lloyd knew something was wrong with Aaron because Aaron texted his sister frantically, telling her that he left with “NFL…” in case anything would happen. And that night, Lloyd was taken to a roadside and was shot fatally, six times, before being left there.

Aaron returned to his home with his two friends (who subsequently ratted him out during the trial) and had smoothies that his fiancé, Shayanna Jenkins made.

It was not long after Lloyd's murder that law enforcement located the body and traced the murder back to Aaron Hernandez.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

A lawsuit over the trailer to the highly-regarded animated film,Frozen, is causing
The Walt Disney Company quite a headache as Disney attempts to get it
dismissed.

Kelly Wilson, the creator of a short 2D computer-animated film entitled The Snowman,brought the copyright lawsuitin March 2014 with alleging that theFrozen teaser-trailer was
substantially similar her film. The bar on showing similarity in copyright
cases is usually quite high, but in July 2014, California federal judgeVince Chhabriaruled on Disney’s
motion to dismiss stating that "the sequence of events in both works, from
start to finish, is too parallel to conclude that no reasonable juror could
find the works substantially similar."

Disney made another attempt to beat the lawsuit on summary
judgment, which included a forensic analysis (i.e., who viewed the video, where
watchers were geographically located, how long they watched) of YouTube records
of The Snowman and Frozen. Disney argued the creators of the Frozentrailer
lacked access to Wilson's work. Disney's lawyers also attempted to introduce
denials from witnesses they'd ever seenThe Snowman. This argument failed on multiple points as well.

In court papers detailing hisApril 2015
decision in denying Disney’s summary judgment motion, Chabbria cited the 2011
San Francisco International Film Festival where The Snowmanscreened four times, saying
roughly 16 Pixar employees who were heavily involved with the creation ofFrozenattended the festival and viewed The
Snowman. He stated that there is a genuine factual dispute over whether the
creators of the Frozen trailer had access to Wilson’s work, stating that “[th]e
connection betweenThe
Snowmanand people involved
in creating theFrozentrailer is fairly close.”

There is one more bizarre connection between the two films. "Wilson
and her co-creator sent numerous job applications to Disney and Pixar, some of
which included images from or references toThe Snowman," writes the judge.

And with that, the case seems likely
to be headed to trial, or Disney could decide to settle instead of racking up a
hefty legal bill. Disney is hoping that the judge will also deny Wilson’s own
motion for summary judgment, which argues that that the works are so
"strikingly similar" that they could not have been created
independently.

The judge says a reasonable jury
could go either way, and a trial has been tentatively scheduled for October.